Submission Deadline: All manuscripts should be submitted for consideration by December 31, 2021.

The global environmental crisis is intertwined with the crisis of social and economic inequality. From coal plants to palm oil plantations, economic activities that threaten the planet are concentrated in communities with less power and wealth. “You can’t have climate change without sacrifice zones,” writes Hop Hopkins, “and you can’t have sacrifice zones without disposable people.”1

Knowledge management and learning are at the heart of the LAND-at-scale program. On June 29^th at a pre-event of the LANDac conference, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), LANDac and the International Land Coalition (ILC) officially announced their collaboration to implement the knowledge management (KM) component of the program.

I was assigned to lead the preparation of the assessments and amendments to the land consolidation legislation in 2016. That appeared to be a burdensome task. The first two land consolidation projects in North Macedonia were initiated according to the existing Land Consolidation Law and the implementation was blocked. The Law simply had no legal solutions for the identified field situations. The problems were many and each was ascending the other in its magnitude and sensitivity.

By Grace Goodrich

In the second part of an exclusive with Africa Oil & Power, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s Director for Africa, Paul Akiwumi, discusses trade facilitation reforms, debt relief programs and Official Development Assistance as instruments of aid for Angola during COVID-19.

What role will trade facilitation and policy reforms play in helping reduce Angola’s dependence on fuel exports?

About 350 land actors from government, academia, civil society and business came together from more than 15 states and outside India to discuss and debate various land issues. In more than 30 sessions, about 150 speakers and panelists deliberated over 3 days around interdisciplinary land-conversations to generate important information and evidence for policy, practice and academics.

Ten important land messages that emerge from these land conversations are:

India-Land and Development Conference (ILDC) – 2020 held in New Delhi from March 2 to 4 saw a lively debate on a wide range of issues relating to India’s land sector. More than 100 academicians, young researchers, activists and policy makers made their presentations in the conference spread across 34 thematic and two plenary sessions. More than 350 delegates participated in the event. 

The land sector is increasingly being cited as a corruption hub. Many countries across the globe are grappling with land-related corruption that dates to the colonial years and which have metamorphosed into historical injustices and continue to be a source of conflict and violation of basic human rights. Cases of land grabbing, compensation-less expropriation, gender-based discrimination in accessing and ownership of land and related resources, illegal mining deals, bribing to access land administration services among others are not new in the lands sector.

I bring you warm greetings from H.E. Mousa Faki Mahamat, the Chairperson of African Union Commission. It is my honour and pleasure to deliver this statement at the opening of the Conference on Land Policy in Africa. I salute the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Government of Côte D’Ivoire and all partners for hosting and successfully organizing the 2019 Conference on Land Policy in Africa.

Last week the World Cocoa Foundation, a membership organization of more than 100 cocoa companies, held its annual partnership meeting in Berlin, Germany. The aim of the meeting is for governments, cocoa companies and farmers to identify and tackle the sector’s largest sustainability challenges. A 90-minute session was devoted to the topic of land tenure. The prominence of the session, as well as the seniority of the presenters – the Head of Sustainable Sourcing for Hershey’s and the Deputy Director General of Cote d’Ivoire’s Land Agency among them – is a powerful signaling effect.